U.S. Working with Russia to Become Part of the Hague Convention

Russia seems to not be happy with American adoptive parents, especially after the earlier acquittal of Miles Harrison. Harrison and his wife adopted an infant from Russia, but tragically Miles forgot the baby in his car for more than nine hours last July resulting in the child's death. Russian news media really went after the story of little Chase Harrison's death and raised questions not only on adoption polices, but of Americans' priorities. It's been reported that due to the latest tragic death of a Russian adoptee, Russia is talking about banning the adoption of Russian children by United State citizens.

The State Department is working with the Russian Federation and asking them to ratify the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption. The United States signed the treaty in December 2007, and implemented the polices in April 2008. Some requirements of Hague countries is that the adoptive parents have psychological testing before being approved for adoption as well as completing parenting classes.

The hope is that as more and more countries sign the treaty, more agencies will begin implementing the treaty's standards whether the country is a part of the Hague Convention or not.

SOURCE:
U.S. Urges Russia to Sign Adoption Treaty - The DC Examiner